


Nick & Takeo - #47 - Valiant

by zosimos (trismegistus)



Series: Tobira no Mukou e [4]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Gen, Original Characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-28
Updated: 2010-04-28
Packaged: 2017-10-09 05:29:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/83543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trismegistus/pseuds/zosimos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt #47 of 50</p><p>Sequel spun off from Fullmetal Alchemist Children OAV. Original Characters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nick & Takeo - #47 - Valiant

**#47 - Valiant**

Takeo held his hand over the open candle flame, feeling the heat build up against his palm until the point it became unbearable. He moved his hand idly to the side and the flame flickered with small breeze generated by his movement, then grew steady again. Fire was a deeply fascinating thing.

"You're going to burn your hand again," Ellie said, pulling on a coat. For the first time in a long while her hair was down, lying trapped under her coat and scarf. She pulled a warm knit cap over her head and wrinkled her nose at Takeo. He looked at her guiltily over his glasses and put his hand back down on the desk.

"Where are you going?"

"Out," she replied, as if that wasn't evident by the scarf, and the mittens, and the boots. "I need to restock my medkit, and we're running low on a few supplies." She held up his wallet. "I needed a couple hundred cenz, hope you weren't too attached to them."

Takeo shook his head. If they really, really needed the money it was simple trick to transmute more; although duplicating the paper money took a lot more skill than he had at the moment. Transmuting gold was too easy; every schmuck looking to make a quick buck at alchemy tried that. Any gold exchange worth its salt in the metropolitan areas had an alchemist on hand to test the gold for transmutation.

Silver, on the other hand, was easier to slide past because not everyone tested silver. You couldn't test the paper money for transmutation, either, but it was far more complicated to reproduce.

Ellie waved a hand as she pulled the door firmly shut behind her. Takeo sighed and looked back at down at the table.

They were far enough out in the middle of nowhere, currently. Takeo had been dead certain no one could find them out here; he wanted to make sure that if any of his transmutation circles rebounded that it wouldn't negatively affect any innocent people, but sure as a bloodhound Nick tracked him here. Ellie was different, she was bound and determined to follow him everywhere, photographing every little thing as they went. "For my book," she had told him.

Nick lay in Ellie's bed. Ellie got the large plush bed, and Takeo had a mattress on the floor stuffed with straw and a pile of blankets to keep out the cold. Once Nick was healed up he'd tranmute another mattress for him to keep warm.

Leave it to Nick to hero it up in front of everybody. Takeo drummed his fingers on the table and glanced over at the still form of his friend, feeling bad for the thought already. It wasn't fair to Nick, he had stumbled into the wolf and it was a case of bad luck. Nick had the worst luck on the planet, even Takeo fared better than he did.

Nick's automail was still laid out on the table. They had removed it after Ellie had sewn him up, and now Nick was currently swearing out a fever. Takeo had worried quite a bit about him but Ellie was skilled with medicine, among other things. She didn't seem worried so he tried not to. When he glanced over at Nick, he saw that Nick's eyes were open just a bit. "You awake?"

"Don't wanna be." Nick croaked. "Hurts."

"Well, I'm not surprised at all," Takeo said. "A wolf used you for a chew toy."

Nick started to try to sit up, realized his arm was off and the other was too injured to do the trick and let out a small groan of pain. "I'm thirsty."

Takeo got up then, fetched water from the jug that they kept and poured Nick a glass, before realizing he'd have to help his friend sit up to drink it. That was a bit of an affair, but Takeo got Nick upright and helped him drink the water. Nick sat back against the wall and groaned, his left arm laying limp across his lap. "What the hell are you doing out here, Takeo?"

"Research," Takeo said, refilling Nick's water glass. "Away from people who could get hurt by it."

"And who's the girl?"

"Ellie? She's a friend."

"You're living with her."

Takeo gave Nick a look. "This is the only cabin for two miles, of course we're sharing it."

Nick exhaled quietly. "What are you really doing out here, Takeo?"

Takeo put the water glass to Nick's lips. "Just drink, I promise I'll explain later." Nick's eyes were cool, but he drank the water offered greedily.

"You need a haircut," Nick said.

Takeo tugged lightly on the end of Nick's hair. "Speak for yourself. You going for the braided look too?"

Nick looked offended by that. "I can't cut my own hair," he said. "I've been looking for you for a while, Nick. Your sudden departure upset quite a few people."

"Did Mustang send you after me?"

Nick took a deep breath and winced. "What happened to 'General Mustang'?" he asked curiously. Takeo's brow lowered darkly and he glanced to the desk.

"Doesn't matter," he said. "I'm not a State Alchemist, so whatever he says doesn't have any jurisdiction over me."

Nick rested his head back against the wall, feeling the cool air seep through the logs. "Heh, that's some turnaround from worshiping the ground the guy walks on to sounding like the old man."

"Shouldn't you be, like, unconscious in pain or something?" Takeo sat back down at the desk, where a pile of books with multiple bookmarks jammed in their pages sat in haphazard piles.

Nick grinned sharply, breathing a little hard. "You know me," he said. "Always pushing past my limit." He exhaled noisily and then stilled. Takeo looked at him in alarm, but Nick was still breathing shallowly.

"Idiot," Takeo muttered, after he checked Nick's pulse. "I didn't mean pass out right this second." He laid Nick as carefully as he could back down, pulling the covers back up over his friend. "You need to stop overdoing it," he told Nick crossly. "Because you're going to get yourself killed."

Nick's steady breathing was the only response he got.


End file.
